Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

The plural generic could be substituted for the indefinite generic in all the examples
given in 22.4.1, with the exception of (54) (because herhangi has to be followed by bir
and a singular noun phrase). The plural equivalents of (51) and (55) are given below:
(57) {Akıllı insanlar} borçlanmaktan kaçınır.
‘{Wise people} avoid getting into debt.’
(58) {Öyle okullar}-da okumak zor.
‘It’s hard to study in {such schools}.’
The plural generic is the form preferred for making generalizations about classes of
human beings:
(59) İtalyanlar konuşkandır.
‘(The) Italians are talkative.’
(60) Kimse politikacılara güvenmez.
‘No one trusts politicians.’
The ‘individuation’ conveyed by the plural generic makes it appropriate for the
expression of quite modest or homely generalizations based upon the speaker’s personal
observation or experience:
(61) Kalorifersiz evler nispeten ucuz oluyor.
‘Flats without central heating are relatively cheap.’
(62) Bugün gençler [yemek yapmasın]-ı bilmiyorlar.
‘Young people today don’t know [how to cook].’
22.4.3 GENERIC NOUN PHRASES AS DIRECT OBJECTS
Bare generics are usually non-case-marked in the direct object function:
(63) Sen çocuk sevmezsin.
‘You don’t like children.’
(64) Ayten şapka seviyor.
‘Ayten loves hats.’
In sentences where a direct object with no determiner has accusative marking, the
referential status of the noun phrase is usually definite:
(65) Ayten şapkayı seviyor.
‘Ayten loves the hat.’
Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 332
However, such noun phrases can also be open to a generic interpretation:
(66) Ayten şapkayı başkalarında seviyor, ama [saçları güzel olduğu için] kendisi
pek giymiyor.
‘Ayten likes hats on other people, but [because she has beautiful hair] she herself
doesn’t wear [them] much.’
A bare generic direct object is particularly likely to be accusative-marked where (a) it
denotes animate beings, and (b) the subject of the sentence is itself a bare generic: